In the novel ‘Loved One,’ an ambiguous friendship is further complicated by loss

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Aisha Muharrar’s debut novel Loved One is about a woman’s effort to understand her relationship with a friend who’s recently died. Julia had been friends with Gabe for nearly a decade after the two briefly dated – but their relationship became complicated right before his death. In today’s episode, Muharrar joins NPR’s Juana Summers for a conversation about ambiguous loss, uncertainty, and how the author hoped to write a book about grief that wouldn’t depress people.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The novelist Aisha Mahar describes the journey
0:07.7	her protagonist takes in her new book like this. She says, it's a long journey to feel a feeling.
0:13.6	It's an interesting way to frame her novel, which is called Loved One, since it opens at a funeral.
0:19.9	But grief takes its time, right?
0:21.8	It sort of works through you at its own pace.
0:24.8	After the break, Mahara talks to Empires-Wana Summers
0:27.1	about slowing down the grieving process
0:29.6	and really examining how it plays out differently
0:32.8	in different people.
0:35.5	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:40.2	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:44.8	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:46.8	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:50.6	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:54.2	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:00.1	Aisha Mujar's debut novel, Loved One, chronicles a series of events in the life of 30-year-old Julia that just don't make sense.
1:07.7	The story opens with a moment that looks and feels like one of the endless weddings
1:11.3	Julia's been attending, except it's not. This perpetual wedding season was such a well-known
1:16.9	truth about people our age that I could feel an awareness of it in the room as I stood up,
1:22.1	clutching my own folded sheet of printer paper and began to speak about my dear friend Gabe.
1:27.4	It was one of the things I had to
1:28.6	avoid saying in Gabe's eulogy, the obvious thing, that he was only 29, and his death was so sudden,
	...

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